Shout out for Trader Joe’s Belgian Chocolate bars that are the size of a paperback book!
One of these bars paired with a dessert cookbook would be a nice stocking stuffer.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Friday, December 12, 2025
Thursday, December 11, 2025
Gingerbread House Wars White Flag by Ruth Paget
Gingerbread Wars White Flag by Ruth Paget
I saw that Food Network runs a TV show now called Holiday Gingerbread Showdown, a competition about who builds the best gingerbread house often with a theme.
I looked the show up online and realized this is becoming an established cultural phenomenon with events happening in places like Naples, Italy for military families and at Boston University.
I feel hopelessly left out of the competition due to lack of skills. When my daughter Florence Paget was little, we went to Cost Plus World Market and bought a gingerbread house kits. (4 different kinds of gingerbread house kits are available and on sale at Cost Plus World Market for $11.89 in Seaside, California with pre-baked panels, icing, candies, gummies, sprinkles, paper cut outs, and tray as of today 12-11-2025).
Even with a pre-fab gingerbread house, my gingerbread house looked more like a log cabin than a snow-covered Hansel and Gretel cottage.
Fortunately, the icing tasted good and the gingerbread was easy to chop up for sprinkles on ice cream.
When Florence became older, one of her friend’s mom held gingerbread house decorating parties not competitions. My fellow mom knew how to make sticky icing that would hold gummies on the side of a house.
My testimonial on the gingerbread house kit is that it is fun to do as part of a larger activity. I would read the Gingerbread Man story book to Florence before building the house and have her work on a Gingerbread Man coloring book as part of Gingerbread House Day. I would play Christmas carols that we would sing along to as well.
Now I would add watching the Food Network Gingerbread House Competition to this list of activities.
The gingerbread itself is bitter, which is why I put chopped pieces in ice cream. It is also good dunked in tea with honey in it.
We no longer build gingerbread houses, but if you have younger children, I would recommend doing one of the gingerbread house kits at Cost Plus World Market as a Christmas week activity. Walmart and Target also sell gingerbread house kits. Older teens might like Amazon’s gingerbread house kits - these kits prepare you for gingerbread wars.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Pecans, Walnuts, and Peanuts for Christmas by Ruth Paget
Pecans, Walnuts, and Peanuts for the Holidays by Ruth Paget
When I was a child, my father always bought walnuts and pecans in a shell to snack on during Christmas. He sat on the window seats in our house in Highland Park, Michigan (an enclave of Detroit) and had me crush the walnuts and pecans in the holiday nutcracker.
The nutcracker looked like a wooden cup that had a large wooden screw that you could turn into the cup through a grooved hole. The wooden screw eventually crushed one side of the nut well enough to pull it apart and remove the papery husks inside the nut.
I did not like walnuts then, but enjoyed crushing the nuts in the nutcracker. I liked tipping the nutcracker into the garbage every use to clean things up easily. I realize now that my dad was being somewhat like Tom Sawyer getting me to do all the work while he munched away.
One of the neighbor kids who was my friend also mentioned that I was doing a lot of work with nothing in return to my dad. She then told him what her family had as treats.
My dad sheepishly got me Fig Newtons, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, M & Ms, and Snickers Bars.
I liked Halloween for Christmas and my opinionated, bossy friends in Detroit.
(Note: I eat pecans, cashews, almonds, and walnuts now. They are good with a sipped shot of Marsala.)
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Monday, December 8, 2025
Holiday Treat - Butter-Pecan Ice Cream posted by Ruth Paget
Tillamook Butter Pecan Ice Cream Shout Out!
I really like this ice cream. Needs no sauce. Nice texture from soft pecans.
I bought mine at Nob Hill. Great with espresso.
Posted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Versatile Cranberry Sauce Recipe by Ruth Paget
Versatile Cranberry Sauce Recipe by Ruth Paget
Dave Faries’ article about cranberries in the Monterey County Weekly inspired me to write up my favorite recipe for cranberries. The Weekly article has historical information and gourmet recipes for this tart and bitter seasonal treat, which I have included in the hyperlink below:
When I lived in Wisconsin for 3 years, I made my version of cranberry sauce from cranberries that grow in Wisconsin as well as Massachusetts.
My recipe has several uses. I would mix my cranberry sauce with yogurt for breakfast and as a sauce for vanilla ice cream. You can also add it to hot grain cereals like oatmeal, grits, or cream of wheat. It certainly pairs well with Thanksgiving turkey.
Cranberry Sauce
Yield: 12 ounces
Ingredients:
-1 (12 – ounce) bag of fresh cranberries
-1/4 cup water
-1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar or honey
Steps:
1-Rinse cranberries and discard any stems.
2-Place the cranberries in a saucepan along with the water. Bring water to a boil.
3-Let the cranberries begin to pop open and mash them down. This will take about 10 to 15 minutes.
4-When all the cranberries have popped open, remove the cranberries from the heat. Stir in the sugar or honey and let it dissolve.
The cranberry sauce can be used hot or cold depending on what you are serving it with. It can keep for about two days in the refrigerator.
According to WebMd.com, cranberries provide 25% of Vitamin C for recommended daily values and 9% of Vitamin A and 6% of Vitamin K. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant. This tart berry is fairly healthy for your and plentiful in winter.
I looked up cranberries on Nob Hill’s website and saw that their Raley’s store brand (12-ounce package) is selling for $3.19 as of today (December 8, 2025). I think this is a fair price for the amount of cranberry sauce you can make for several servings. Making this cranberry sauce is a fun, family activity, too.
For more cranberry ideas, check out the Hello! 365 Cranberry Recipes by Ms Fruit on kindle for .99 cents.. Information follows:
Hoping you enjoy the cranberry sauce sometime this winter season!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Carpenter Ancestors of Ruth and Florence Paget - Virtual Genealogy Project by Ruth Paget
Carpenter Ancestors of Ruth and Florence Paget – Virtual Genealogy Project by Ruth Paget
My great-grandmother Etta Carpenter owned property in her own right in Wisconsin. This information can be found on platte maps in the Wisconsin Historical Society. Her family history illustrates westward European settlement of the United States.
G1 refers to generation 1.
G1 – Florence Paget
-daughter of Laurent Paget and Florence Paget
G2 – Ruth Pennington
-daughter of Clarence Pennington and Beatrice May Sawle
G3 – Beatrice May Sawle
-daughter of Frank Henry Sawle and Daisy May Bardsley
G4 – Daisy May Bardsley
-daughter of Edward Charles Bardsley and Etta Pearl Carpenter
Born: April 25, 1905
Died: April 4, 1984, buried in Arena Cemetery, Arena, Iowa County, Wisconsin
G5 – Etta Pearl Carpenter
-daughter of George Robert Carpenter and Phoebe Throop
Born: April 29, 1866
Died: September 10, 1928
G6 – George Robert Carpenter
-son of Benjamin Carpenter and Elizabeth Eaker
Born: September 7, 1841
Died: July 8, 1887, buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Black Earth, Dane County, Wisconsin
G7 – Benjamin Carpenter
-son of Barnard Carpenter and Phoebe Avery
Born: May 4, 1803, in Great Nine Partners, Duchess, New York
Died: October 18, 1866, buried in Black Earth, Dane County, Wisconsin
G8 –Barnard Carpenter
-son of John Charles Carpenter and Ruth Horton
Born: December 21, 1756, in Great Nine Partners, Duchess, New York Colony, British Colonial America
Died: May 8, 1843, in Boonville, Boonville County, Oneida, New York
G9 – John Charles Carpenter Jr
-son of John Carpenter and Sarah Thurston
Born: January 4, 1728, in Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America
Died: 1804, in Milton, Saratoga, New York Note: He lived in Barrington, Bristol, Rhode Island in 1728
G10 – John Carpenter Sr
-son of Benjamin Carpenter Sr and Renew Weeks
Born: March 25, 1692, in Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America
Died: 1766 in Massachusetts
G11 – Benjamin Carpenter Sr
-son of Joseph Carpenter I and Margaret Sutton
Born: January 19, 1658
Died: May 22, 1727, buried in Knockum Hill Cemetery, Barrington, Bristol, Rhode Island
G12 – Joseph Carpenter I
-son of William Carpenter and Abigail Briant
Born: April 6, 1534, in Shalbourne, Wiltshire, England
Died: May 3, 1675, buried in Knockum Hill Cemetery in Barrington, Bristol, Rhode Island
G13 – William Carpenter
-son of William Carpenter and unknown name mother
-Immigrant to the US
Born: 1605, in England
Died: 1659, buried in Newman Cemetery, Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, British Colonial America
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Sunday, December 7, 2025
Bardsley Ancestors of Ruth and Florence Paget - Virtual Genealogy Project by Ruth Paget
Bardsley Ancestors of Ruth and Florence Paget – Virtual Genealogy Project by Ruth Paget
My mother’s grandpa Bardsley lived with her family at the end of his life and loved doing crossword puzzles. He showed my mother Beatrice Pennington how to do them, and she still starts her day doing the newspaper crossword puzzle and the New York Times crossword puzzle on Sunday.
G1 below refers to generation 1 and so on.
G1 – Florence Paget
-daughter of Laurent Paget and Ruth Pennington
G2 – Ruth Pennington
-daughter of Clarence Pennington and Beatrice May Sawle
-Ruth Paget was elected to serve on the Downtown District Citizens Council of Detroit, Michigan in 1982. She resigned from office to attend college at the University of Chicago.
-Ruth's sister Kathleen has worked as a printer for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution daily newspaper.
G3 – Beatrice May Sawle
-daughter of Frank Henry Sawle and Daisy May Bardsley
-My mother worked as a newspaper printer, most notably for the Detroit (Michigan) Free Press daily newspaper and various ethnic newspapers in Detroit. She was working for the Unique Press, which printed the Michigan Chronice, a black newspaper, when Rosa Parks sat down on the bus; the press was immediately stopped to cover the story. The daily Detroit newspapers were on strike at the time, letting the Michigan Chronicle scoop the story.
-Beatrice Pennington was part of the Detroit Free Press staff that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1968 for General Local Reporting of the 1967 Detroit Race Riots.
-Elected to the Downtown Citizens Council of Detroit, Michigan
G4 – Daisy May Bardsley
-daughter of Edward Charles Bardsley and Etta Pearl Carpenter
-My grandmother worked as a newspaper printer
Born: April 25, 1905
Died: April 14, 1984, buried in Arena Cemetery, Arena, Iowa County, Wisconsin
G5 – Edward Charles Bardsley
-son of James Edward Bardsley and Anna C. Charlesworth
Born: July 31, 1863 in Blue Mounds, Dane County, Wisconsin
Died: July 31, 1949 in Black Earth, Dane County, Wisconsin
G6 – James Edward Bardsley
-son of William Stevenson Bardsley and Betty Harrison
-Immigrant to the US
Born: August 1, 1843 in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England, UK
Died: April 16, 1892 in Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin (Lived in Black Earth and Springfield, Wisconsin)
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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